BRITAIN. 



701 



I 1 ,' 



which this motion elicited and weakened by many 

 concessions which they had themselves made, both 

 as to the existence of venality, and the necessity for 

 putting tome check to it, succeeded in breaking the 

 force of the bill by amendments. An open and un- 

 ualificd opponent of reform, Mr Windham, resisted 

 the motion, not on its peculiar features or enactments, 

 but upon its whlo scope, essence, and principles. 

 The measure, Mr Windham averted, was ill timed, 

 injudicious, founded upon false facts, false views, and 

 false assumptions, calculated to produce no good in 

 the first instance, and li:ible and likely to lead to the 

 most serious mischiefs in future. The House of 

 Commons, he contended, was adequate to all the 

 purposes of its institution; the constitution was alrea- 

 dy good ; and, as there was no temptation to change 

 its structure, so there was positive risk in trying the 

 unknown results of visionary experiments. To pre- 

 vent the sale of seats in parliament, you must take 

 away the influence of property, and make it penal, 

 for any one to have the power of nominating a mem- 

 ber. 60 long as there are persons in a situation to 

 say, I can make an offer of a seat in parliament, so 

 long will there be persona to treat with for that ob- 

 ject, and so long will means be found for committing, 

 iu some way or other, the influence so possessed, 

 on considerations valuable to the possessor." Ac- 

 cording to Mr VVii.dham's argument, it is equally 

 futile, even equally unfair, to prevent the buying of 

 seats from a multitude, as from an individual. The 

 influence of property cannot be got rid of. The 

 just, wholesome, and legitimate use of property, he 

 migh< be told, was a totally different thing from the 

 saL- i i r seats. But we are now arguing (said he) 

 pie, which, by its nature, unites things 

 difFerc:'t in lorms, but which arc ultimately the same 

 in substance, and does not found distinctions on acci- 

 dental varieties. The influence of property is the 

 same, whether it actually sold a seat in parliament, 

 or gave the individual a seat to sell. The influence 

 of property might be strained and refined, so as to 

 retain little or nothing of its primary character, just 

 as a certain physical impulse of our nature is refined 

 from its original grossness into all that is delicate 

 and sentimental, it may branch into acts of benefi- 

 cence, it becomes only the power and opportunity of 

 virtue. But is this (he continued,) the only way in 

 which property exerts its powers ? Is it always ta- 

 ken in this finer form of the extract or essence ? Is it 

 never exhibited in the substance ? It is here that the 

 comparison will begin, and that the question will be 

 asked ; while the advocates of reform, who do not 

 mean to extend it to the abolition of all influence of 

 property, will do well to be prepared to answer, 

 How, if the sale of a seat, or any commutation of 

 services connected with such an object, be gross cor- 

 ruption, can we tolerate the influence which proper- 

 ty gives, in biassing the minds of those who are to 

 give their votes ? How are they to suffer a landlord, 

 for instance, to have any more influence over his own 

 tenants, than over those of another man ? How will 

 they suffer a large manufacturer, to be able to bring 

 to the poll more of his own workmen, than of those 

 employed in the service of his neighbour ? How will 

 they prevent an opulent man, of any description, 

 2 



spending his fortune in a borough town, from bung R 



able to talk of his infl ing the smaller li.idi s- ' -"v ' 



or be at liberty to hint to his b.ikcr, or his *-*" 

 butcher, that, laying out every week sucha sum with 

 them as he does, he expects that they should oblige 

 him by giving ;; votr to his friend Mr Snrh-a one, at 

 the next election? " If all this," said Mr Windh.iin, 

 " is not corrupt, on the principles of reformers, 1 know Mr wind- 

 not wlwt is. What has money, spent with trades- liam'* 

 men, or work given to manufacturers, or farms let to speech a- 

 tenants, to do with the independent exercise of their K 3 ' ntl rc 

 right, and the conscious discharge of their duty in '" 

 the election of a member, to serve them in parliament ? 

 A fine idea truly, that their decision, in the choice of 

 a representative, is to be influenced by the consi- 

 deration of what is best for their separate and private 

 interest; or, that persons, the advocates of purity, 

 and who will hear of nothing but strict principle, 

 should attempt to distinguish between the influence 

 which engages a man's vote by the offer of a sum of 

 money, and that which forbids the refusal of it, un- 

 der the penalty of loss of custom, or loss of work, or 

 of the possession of that, on which his wife and fa- 

 mily must depend for their bread. I shall be curi- 

 ous to hear in what manner, not the advocates of thu 

 bill, but the advocates for the principles on which this 

 bill is enforced, will defend themselves against these 

 questions, and be able to shew, that, while it is gross 

 corruption, gross moral depravity in any one who 

 possesses such influence, to connect his own interest 

 with the use of it, even though he should not use it 

 improperly, it is peifectly innocent to create that in- 

 fluence by the means just described. Or, on the 

 other hand, if such means are not lawful, how the in- 

 fluence of property is to continue such as it has at all 

 times subsisted in practice, and been at all times con- 

 sidered as lawfully subsisting, it is indifferent to 

 me which side of the alternative they take ; but let 

 them be well aware, that such is the alternative to 

 which they will be reduced, and that if they contend 

 generally, as it is now done, that such and such things 

 are corrupt, because they admit the consideration of 

 interest, in matters which ougnt to be exclusively de- 

 cided on principles of duty, it is in vain for them to 

 contend hereafter, that any man has a right to influ- 

 ence his tenants, or tradesmen, or workmen, by any 

 other means at least than those by which he may in- 

 fluence the tenants, tradesmen, or workmen of any 

 other person, that is to say, by his talents, or by his 

 virtues, by the services which he may have done, and 

 the gratitude he may have inspired. 



When I look therefore to the moral qualities of 

 these acts as independent of, and antecedent to, posi- 

 tive law, I am at a loss to find what it is, either on 

 the score of principle or of authority, that determines 

 them to be corrupt, or that enables us, if they are 

 corrupt, to exempt from the same sentence of corrup- 

 tion, nine-tenths of the influence which has hitherto 

 been supposed to be attached, and legitimately at- 

 tached, to property ; and which, for aught that at 

 present appears, there is no intention o. taking away." 



This brilliant display of Mr Windham's principles, 

 on the subject of representation, well merits notice, 

 even in a summary view of British politics. How- 

 ever displeasing it may be to see venality defended on 



